Europe Trip 2008 Videos

I finally had time to edit and post my video from my Europe Trip in May of this year. I wanted to work on it during the summer, but I had to make an emergency trip to the Philippines, then when I got back, school started.

The Paris video is a bit low quality compared to the others because I had to compress it so it can load on Youtube. As I mentioned before, this is the best trip thus far. I hope you guys enjoy watching this.

If you want to read about our trip, my friend Chris wrote about our time in London and Paris.

CLICK HERE for London
CLICK HERE for Paris

NOTE: If you click on the video while playing, it will take you to the Youtube site. You can watch it in higher quality.

Paris

Barcelona

Rome

London

Thoughts About 2008

I can’t believe how fast this year past. It seems like the older I get, the faster time goes by. I want to write about the things and thoughts that happened throughout this past year. Year 2007 was pretty rough for me, and I prayed and hoped that 2008 was going to be a better year.

Well, I can’t exactly say that 2008 went smooth; it was more like a roller coaster. The first month was definitely one of the rockiest times of the year. Last few months of 2007, I was able to meet a girl that I found really interesting. When I applied to a job in Las Vegas, she was my Human Resource Manager. I always thought she was attractive, but I felt she was out of my league. To my surprise, she made the first move, and asked me out to Club LAX. Well, the night we suppose to go out, we actually drank too much at her apartment, and just had a mini party at her place. To make a long story short, we started dating, and it only lasted till the beginning of 2008. I have to say I was pretty devastated because I’m usually the one who ends the relationship, and this was the first time I ever got dumped.

I told myself don’t stay home and weep about the whole break up. So what happened was that one of my good friend’s brother was getting married. I wasn’t invited, but all my friends were going to be there. When I picked up my best friends, Chris and Jamie, from the airport, they asked me to crash the wedding; so I did. Since I am into photography, and I wanted to practice my event skills, I decided to bring my camera to the wedding. I think that was the smartest thing I did because I blended right in with the other photographer. I was actually caught during the reception by the groom, but my friend, Josh [the brother of the groom] told him I was cool and I can stay. There was an open bar, and I fully took advantage of that. During this wedding, I was able to meet two great girls at the party, and to top things off, I was the only breakdancer at the party; so imagine all the attention I got after I showed off some moves. I actually wrote about this on a previous blog, and if you want to read about it, CLICK HERE.

This is a low part of my year. During the month of March, some idiot was breaking car windows in my neighborhood, and I was a victim.

During the same month my window was bashed in, I attend a concert of my all time favorite rock group, LINKIN PARK!!! I wasn't supposed to go to this concert, but my old roommate invited me after all the original people bailed on him. He actually had 2 extra tickets, and he gave them to his two gorgeous friends, Candie and Maria. During that night, Ethan kept saying that Maria has a thing for me, but for some reason I was blind and didn’t see it. I wonder where she is now. Maybe one of my goals of 2009 is to re-connect with her. Maria is the one standing next to Ethan.

During April, we were able to celebrate my other best friend, Daniel’s birthday. We actually went to one of our old stomping grounds, Qzar. If you don’t know what that place is, it’s actually laser tag. We haven’t been there since junior high, and when we celebrated his birthday, we were all excited to play with laser guns and run around like we were in a battle to save our country. I actually died a lot during the game because so many little kids where in the game, and I couldn’t see them. I think the next time we go there, we will do a midnight game so all the little kids will be tucked in bed, and the adults will be playing laser tag.

May was an extremely busy travel month. The first trip I attended was Texas. My cousin from the Philippines wanted to visit my cousin in Texas. It was a very short trip, but fun. I was able to visit the site where JFK was shot, and party with my cousin’s friends. The first picture below was taken at the grassy knoll. To my surprise, we partied so hard, but yet, I was able to put some study time for finals. By the way, I pulled straight A’s for the spring semester. I also wrote about my Texas trip in a previous blog. If you want to read it, CLICK HERE.

The second trip I took in May was Europe. It was a nice way to end my semester. I studied really hard, and it was time to party. There is too much to say about this trip. To sum it up, it was the best trip I had so far. I went with a few of my high school buddies, met a ton of people, party hard every night, and came out of the trip with a lot of memories. I still can't believe I was able to see the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes. I have to say that I was my favorite spot out of the the entire trip. The cities we visited were: London, Paris, Barcelona, and Rome.

In June, we had a new member of our David clan, Kairo. He’s the baby of the family, and we all give him a lot of attention. It’s been 7 years since we had a new cousin born, so we were all excited to have another addition.

In July, my grandfather passed away. Majority of the Uncles and Aunties flew back to the Philippines along with a few cousins to attend the funeral. Funerals in the Philippines are different from the States; it’s a happy celebration instead of mourning. Again, there is too much to say about this trip. A few highlights of this trip are: I have a new sister, and can’t wait till she comes to the States, met a new friend from London [Rachel], and I finally got to ride a water buffalo. Oh yeah, I ate some bugs too.

Halloween was fun this year. We went to my friend Mike’s place and party the night away. I have to mention that I have 5 groups that I hang out with, but this group of friends is definitely the ones that party the hardest. When we hang out at Mike’s place, we always play drinking games that gets the party hyphy. I can’t believe that the cops haven’t come through yet, and stop any of our parties. The other picture is my cousin, Kairo. I just thought he looks cute in his monkey costume =).

In November, my friend Chris flew up from Los Angeles for Thanksgiving break. Again, we partied at Mike’s place, and one of the games we played was flip cup. The picture below shows the mere excitement when we were crowned Flip Cup Champions.

Once more, another party at Mike’s place for his birthday… His theme was Ugly Christmas Sweater. I have to say I love going to theme parties. I had a great time that night to the point I blacked out. I feel bad because apparently I had a conversation with a new friend that night, but I don’t remember it at all. I tried contacting her, but she doesn’t respond. FYI, if people are drinking, try to keep conversations to a minimal because people won’t remember the next day.

During this blog, I mentioned I partied a lot. I actually attend at least one party a month, but it was too much to write about. Amazingly I was able to get all A’s for this year. I really surprised myself because I’ve graduated 2 years ago, and it was really hard for me to get back into school mode. I wonder if I can get all A’s till I graduate and get my license for nursing… only time will tell. 2008 was a great year, but I hope 2009 will be better than 2008. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.

When A 3 Year Old Is Asked About Monsters

This clip makes me laugh everytime...

The End???

If you have been reading my past blogs, I talked about a past love a few times. Well, I saw her over the weekend. Instead of my legs feeling like noodles and I’m about to fall to the ground when I see her, I felt something different.

This girl means a lot to me, and I would practically do anything for her. Many times in the past, she would ask me to sing, but I’m very strong about saying NO. I don’t have the singing voice, and that is why I’m in the background playing an instrument. The other day, I was very close to sing a song just to “win” her back, but held myself back knowing how horrible my singing voice is. Then her and her sister asked me to breakdance. I felt that is something I can do since I used to do it as a teenager. I was a bit hesitant because I wasn’t feeling 100% due to a party that lasted all night long the night before. Well, I just convinced myself to go ahead and do a few moves to please them. That was a big mistake. About a month ago, I hurt my wrist really bad, and I had to wear a splint. I recently took it off this week because I felt it was strong enough that I didn’t have to wear it anymore. Well, I re-injured my wrist doing one breakdancing move, and I told them I had to go home now because I was in so much pain and had to get the splint back on ASAP.

When I was driving home from their house, I had a lot of anger building up. I thought I was angry at them for “pressuring” me to entertain them, or angry at myself because I fell into peer pressure. Then I realized I was angry because I can’t go back to the gym as I planned. Because of this anger, it made me realize for the first time that maybe this is THE END, and we are not meant to be together. For the past two years, I’ve been holding on to the idea that it wasn’t our time when we were together/dating, and one day, we can be together again, or even married. Because of the current situation, my bubble burst, and I have a new perspective.

I’m thinking I need to be strong and let go of the past. Because of my “bubble”, I truly ignored potential relationships or were in a few failed ones. I just want to fast forward my life and be in a happy place with my love life.

2008 San Francisco Auto Show

AJ's 2nd Birthday Celebration

Tattoos...

By now, you probably know I have 3 major tattoos that cover both my shoulders and my back. I got these tattoos for me and not to show off. Since I do go to the gym, I like to wear cutoffs, so the one on my shoulders are exposed. Well, yesterday I decided to wear cutoffs to school because I was planning to head straight to the gym after my class was over, and I didn’t feel like changing. Normally the lab for my microbio class is freezing cold, so I always bring a sweatshirt to keep me warm. For some reason, it was a bit hot in the lab so I took off my sweatshirt, and the reaction I got yesterday was, “I wouldn’t never thought a person like you would have tattoos” or “Wow, you have tattoos?!?” These are the reactions I tend to get when people first see my tattoos. Isn’t it weird how people have a natural tendency to stereotype? I bet within the first month of this semester, people think I am Asian/Pacific Islander who is good with computers, take pictures, and get straight A’s. Well I am, but someone with tattoos… hahahaha